The present invention is an interior sleeping platform for vehicles, such as pick-up trucks, SUVs, jeeps, or in fact any vehicle. This interior sleeper may be supported by a part of vehicle's seats and/or occupant assist handles, inter alia. The sleeping system may allow perhaps one to two adults or two adults and a small child, or one adult and one big kid to sleep on the top of the platform. This sleeping device can take full advantage of space inside the vehicle. In some embodiments, the height and level of the whole system may be adjusted, perhaps from the inside. It can provide a comfortable sleeping environment to the users.
In recent years, the desire of sleeping inside of vehicles has become more popular, especially for travelers and road warriors. These people may like to sleep in the car when they are exhausted after a long drive. However, many common passenger automobiles may be unable to provide a comfortable place to sleep. Drivers can pull off to the side of the road and possibly sleep on the front seat. However, this can be uncomfortable and thus perhaps only adequate for short durations of sleep. Additionally, there may not be enough room for the average adult to sleep comfortably on the back seats. On the other hand, if the drivers and passengers want to have a good sleep, they might need to spend around $137 (the average price of a hotel room in the US in 2014) on a hotel room for one night of good sleep. For people who are tight on money, such as college students and young couples, $137 for one night of sleep may be problematic. A cheaper motel room may not provide a neat and tidy environment for exhausted people, especially for ladies and little kids. For drivers, a lack of good sleep might bring negative externalities to society, such as putting himself or herself at risk to have an accident and endangering others on the road as well.
There are few sleeping devices or solutions for vehicles in the current market, particularly many which present only types that exploit the exterior environment. For example, setting up a tent on the top of an automobile, or setting up a sleeping system in the bed of a pick-up truck, and connecting with a heavy trailer. However, all of these sleeping devices may be unable to provide users an economical, convenient and comfortable sleeping environment at the same time.
A sleeping device having a tent on the top of a car may be unable to adequately protect users from bad weather, such as snow, rain, and storm, as well as wild animal attacks. Sleeping in the bed of a pickup truck may not provide users enough space to sleep. The sleeping area may take up all the space of the bed area, leaving little room for travelers to put their belongings. Additionally, if met by an emergency situation, such as a wild animal attack, the user may be unable to drive away immediately. Remodifying vehicles can be expensive and time consuming, but the present invention may require no vehicle modifications and can be installed quickly. Travel Trailers and RV's might provide protection and comfortable sleeping space to users but may also incur high costs, burden of ownership, and additional safety risks inherent with any sort of towing.
Rudimentary or labor intensive sleeping apparatuses may be possibly available for automobile interiors. The sleeping environment with these devices may be, if even practical, inferior to that of the present invention, particularly when considering a multi-person situation. For example, within a typical four door automobile, the sleeping room available on back-seat devices may not be enough for a person who is taller than about 5.35 feet (from one door to the other side of the door), without extensive vehicle modification.
Referring to U.S. Pat. No. 4,221,424 Motor Vehicle Sleeper, issued to Martin A. Eiserman in 1980, this invention is a suspendable sleeping apparatus for use in a motor vehicle, having a passenger compartment with doors on opposite sides. The entire sleeping device is hammock-like and suspends between the doors and the seating area within the compartment. The sleeper is made with fabric, such as denim, which is used for supporting the user. The whole sleeping system is mounted for use with the connecting means interposed between the two doors and the body of the vehicle and with the stop members abutting against the outside of the vehicle at the joints between the doors and the vehicle body for supporting the sleeper body in the compartment.
However, this motor vehicle sleeper may not be useful for a common passenger vehicle. First, this sleeping device may be intended for a cab, such as that for a truck. Normally, the height of a cab in a truck is taller than that of a standard passenger vehicle. And the space that a cab provides may also be bigger. Therefore, if this device is utilized in a common passenger automobile, Eiserman's invention might sag too low and the user's body may touch the center console or the user might be very close to the ceiling of the automobile. Not only the height, but also the length of this sleeping device may be problematic. For an average adult male user, this sleeping system may not provide enough comfortable sleeping space for the user to sleep without bending his knees, neck and back. The entire device may use only fabric to support the user's body, which can be sub-standard sleeping ergonomics. This material may be too soft to support an average weighted user without providing a flat surface. The system is possibly a recipe for little to no sleep, perhaps accompanied with back and neck pains. For a heavy user, this sleeping device might be impossible to use. First, the durability of the fabric material is questioned; if the material is too weak, it may fail and cause injury. Second, the “two stop members” which may be abutting against the outside of the vehicle at the joints between the doors might damage the doors and its paint when a heavy user is sleeping and turning his or her body on this sleeping device. Furthermore, this device may not be able to be adjusted inside the vehicle when the doors are closed. So if the user wants to adjust the level of the sleeper, he or she must exit the vehicle to make an adjustment; it is very inconvenient. The other weakness of this device is that this sleeping system may not be used when any one of the two doors, or both of them, are opened or not closed tightly. If the user is sleeping on this device, and forgets to lock the door, someone else who opens the door could cause serious injury to the user. The entire sleeping system may lack standard safety protection and protocol.
Another suspendable sleeping apparatus for use in an automobile is called the Exterior-Anchored Automobile Hammock, issued in 2015, U.S. Pat. No. 9,101,203B2. The inventor is Hanson Eugene Ely. This device could be regarded as an updated version of Eiserman's Motor Vehicle sleeper.
Ely's exterior-anchored automobile hammock may provide a suspended apparatus inside of a four door small automobile, such as a sedan. This sleeping device may attach to the exterior of the automobile through a plurality of straps and anchors that may utilize the automobile's front and rear windshields, trunk and hood. Users may be required to set up the exterior-anchored automobile hammock. This hammock sleeper suspends over the automobiles interior with the front seats reclined.
However, although Ely's invention may allow users to lie longitudinally in an automobile, the support body may still be made with fabric or other materials which may not provide a flat and strong support surface to the users. It might cause back and neck pain to the users. Additionally, this prior device does not appear to work well for multiple users. Because the support body is made with soft material, when two users lay on this device at the same time, the central part of the support body may sag down. The two users may be forced to the middle part of the hammock, it might not be comfortable for the two users due to the sagged shape of material caused by weight. Besides, just like Eiserman's invention mentioned above, the durability of the material of the support body is questionable when multi users are using this sleeping device at the same time.
Because this prior device is designed specifically for “small sedans”, the larger area contained within a vehicle such as a 4-door pickup truck may have too large a supporting span length and area for Ely's hammock device to function with any form of practicality. Ely's device may not be pulled or stretched taut enough to overcome the immense center area sag forces, located far from any hammocking anchors.
Ely's device may cause damage to the paint and exterior finish on an automobile. Any fine dust or debris, an inevitable result of highway travel, which may be located under the device's supporting straps may scratch the paint due to an abrasive action caused by the variability of tensile forces within the straps while the user ingresses and egresses the device, or changes positions during use.
The Ely hammock may be hung inside of a small automobile with multi-straps running to the outside of the vehicle. Because part of the straps may be placed outside of the vehicle, on a rainy day, the straps may absorb and wick water along or through the straps from outside to inside the vehicle. Under certain conditions, the entire sleeping device may become wet and bring unpleasant experiences to the user.
Furthermore, because all of the buckles in the Ely device are on the outside of an automobile, users may have to adjust the height and level of the sleeping system from outside of the vehicle. The users may need a few tries to adjust the whole system to the level that they are satisfied. In a raining or snowing day, this adjustment system may be very inconvenient to the users. The systems' straps and buckles may also corrode and deteriorate whilst being constantly exposed to the harsh outside environment. Coastal users may experience a high degree of corrosion due to the oceans' salt spray, winter users may experience frozen buckles and straps, while ice and UV rays may make the straps brittle and potentially dangerous. Because the straps and buckles are exposed to the outside, the service life of these materials may be reduced and susceptible to tampering. It could cost users more money to protect and replace the materials.
Ely's exterior-anchored automobile hammock may be suspended right above the front seats and may require both front seats to be reclined. Therefore, it may be impossible for users to move from the sleeper to the driver seat and immediately drive away when user's life, safety, or property are threatened by emergency situations, such as wild animal attacks, inclement weather or threatening strangers.
Ely's system is also “free-hanging” from straps and thus may be prone to a swaying action, similar to that of an actual hammock, due to its lack of being rigidly mounted to the vehicle or other firm object. This system may not be supported on three axes and thus may be subject to a number of motions. Further, the device may not be supported in any manner other than directly perpendicular to gravity.